In July 1999, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich filed for divorce from his second wife, Marianne, after eighteen years of marriage amid allegations he was having an affair with a congressional aide, Callista Bisek.
The divorce proceedings involved five months of bitter wrangling in Cobe County, Georgia with lawyers of the Gingriches and Bisek filling depositions to determine any personal and financial secrets on all sides.
Mrs. Gingrich filed court papers accusing Gingrich of trying to transfer assets before the divorce filing.
In a separate filing, Gingrich claims that Mrs. Gingrich held all their personal liquid assets and accused her of depleting "a substantial portion" of those assets.
Mrs. Gingrich than filed to depose her husband's close political and business associates.
She also won a deposition to have Callista Bisek answer questions about her relationship with Gingrich.
Ms. Bisek protested the subpoena on grounds of self-incrimination but agreed to reveal gifts and money that Gingrich spent on her.
Mrs. Gingrich's lawyers posed 32 sets of question to Gingrich.
His lawyers replied that the questions' subparts pose more than 150 and Georgia law allows no more than 50, the number, which Gingrich answered.
Gingrich then filed several motions focusing on the part that Marianne played in the breakdown of the marriage, demanding that she turn over money that he claimed she was hoarding and asking her to respond to 26 questions for discovery evidence.
Ultimately, the Gingriches ended the divorce proceedings with a private tentative agreement on December 16, 1999.
